‘WE’RE READY’

President David Granger, who is also leader of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change’s (APNU+AFC’s) List of Candidates, has confirmed that the coalition is 100 per cent ready for Nomination Day and will present a balanced list of candidates inclusive of all groups of Guyanese.

Only two more days stand between the 19 political parties contesting the 2020 elections and Nomination Day set for Friday, January 10, 2020 at the Umana Yana. It is the day that political parties will prove whether they can meet the criteria to contest by submitting their respective ‘List of Candidates’ to the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM’s) Chief Elections Officer (CEO).

“The APNU/AFC as a coalition is made up of six parties and we’ve received nominations after due consultations from our partners so we will be on time and we will have a List which is ethnically- balanced, which is gender-balanced, which is geographically-balanced, occupationally-balanced and still provides the Guyanese people with the talent needed to go in to the National Assembly and to continue on the course that we’ve embarked on,” the President told the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday. “We’re completely ready for Nomination Day which is coming up and all of my partners have been consulted and have submitted their nominations.”

The Constitution mandates that among what is submitted is one National Top-Up List, at least six Geographical Constituencies’ Lists and the Regional Democratic Councils’ Lists that the given Party may seek to contest on elections day. The various Lists of Candidates must be accompanied by Statutory Declarations by each person named therein as candidates, indicating their consent to be nominated before a Justice of the Peace, Commissioner of Oaths, notary public or other person authorised by law to administer an oath in the place where the declaration is made.

The Constitution also stipulates that a person may be a signatory to a List of Candidates, notwithstanding that he/she is named therein as a candidate. Candidates’ names may be duplicated only in that contesting party’s Geographical Constituency Lists and on its National Top-Up Lists; however, it must be noted that a Candidate’s name must appear on only one Geographical Constituency’s List.
Party launch

Meanwhile, asked to comment on the coalition’s successful launch last Friday at D’Urban Park, the Guyanese leader said that the recent response received by the APNU+AFC is testimony to the sentiments that Guyanese are ready to re-elect the government into office. The launch was attended by thousands of supporters countrywide.

The President said: “The country could be assured that what they saw on Friday night at D’Urban Park is representative not only of the policies but also of the enthusiasm of the people and the support for a particular programme that we will embark on. It’s not about personalities, it’s not about Granger or Ramjattan, it’s about what policies the people of Guyana will embrace to take them forward in the next five years and beyond the next 10 years and we have given enough meat on the bones of our programme to convince and persuade the population that we’re the fittest party, we’re the fittest coalition to take Guyana forward.”

President Granger stated too that what was witnessed last Friday was national unity in one of its truest forms and the spotlighting of persons who were not hand-picked but who rightfully came up through processes within the parties. President Granger pointed out that what the coalition has achieved has “put the final nail in the coffin” of the winner takes all system of the past where only some in society are given a voice.

While many are still awaiting the party’s manifesto, the Head of State said that it is in “an advance state” and has only been delayed to cater for the revision of the Cummingsburg Accord. The party’s four-stage process with regards to the Accord would have seen, first, the agreement on core principles followed by agreement on the content of the revised Cummingsburg Accord, followed by the release of the manifesto and then the party launch.

However, second stage moving a bit slower than expected, the President explained that there was a shift in the process but the APNU/AFC’s manifesto will be made available in “good time” for the public to preview before elections day. “On Friday, you saw the fourth taking place before the third but we are working on a manifesto. It was delayed a little bit because of the contents of the revision of the Cummingsburg Accord but now that that is settled, now that the core principles are settled, we will see the manifesto.

The committee is actually working on it and we will have it in good time so that people can study it and understand that we are not a fake coalition. We have put a great deal of thought into it and we will ensure that the commitments we make in the manifesto are delivered during our next term in Office,” the President said.